Frank Ocean
“Work hard in silence, let your success make the noise.”
Do you feel as though you are not being heard at work or home?
We all want to be heard, to be believed and to be loved. We crave the feedback that we are making a difference.
When we think we aren’t being heard, we tend to believe that we need to get louder, bolder and more direct. We get angry, blame and fight. We all know of a particular American politician that lives for that game. While he is being heard, nobody is listening.
We cannot compete with noise using more noise.
The world is an increasingly busy and noisy place. Social media has amplified the voice of many, and in doing so, it is much too loud for many of us to stand up and be heard. For some of us, the noise is so distracting that we give up speaking altogether. We not only lose our outer voice, but we also lose our inner voice as well. We give up believing in ourselves.
So, what if we tried being silent?
What is being heard all about?
Isn’t being listened to just a feedback loop to validate our beliefs and pump our ego? As parents, we often yell at our children when they don’t listen to us, not because they are doing something wrong, but mostly because they are not obeying our orders. They are stepping out of line.
I know I often catch myself speaking to be heard, trying desperately to validate my position in life. Instead of silently listening and being receptive to others, I am being noisy and blocking out change. I feel shameful when I do this.
“I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.”
Publilius Syrus
What if we just focused on hearing ourselves first? Focusing on our inner voice and silently believing in who we are. If silently we believe in our thoughts and our abilities to what we can contribute to this world, would it not be fair to say that in a noisy world, your silence would be the most deafening? It is the silent strong ones that we often seek wisdom from and when they speak, we quietly listen.
Martin Luther King Jr.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
If you feel that you’re not being heard, perhaps even you are not listening to yourself. Your volume is deafening your silence.
Get in on the conversation! Join The Roaming Mind Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/theroamingmind/